


Gods & Monsters

by wildfrancium



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Space, M/M, Polyamory, Space Pirates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-12
Updated: 2019-10-19
Packaged: 2020-06-26 19:24:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 10,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19774816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wildfrancium/pseuds/wildfrancium
Summary: Neil is about to be shipped off to a labor camp for a crime he had no part in. On the transport ship he notices notorious pirate gang the Foxes and soon gets caught up in their commandeering scheme.And of course, things aren't as they seem.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Well, here is this. 
> 
> I so so so wanted to write something with a Kevin/Andrew/Neil relationship and I spent so much time trying to think of a plot that didn't involve space, but here we are. Can't escape my love for space pirates apparently. Kevin/Andrew is already established in this and it'll take a bit for Neil to join them. Also it's low key very possibly for Aaron to be in a relationship with Kevin or Neil. Sorry if that is weird.
> 
> Warning for panic attacks.

There was no trial. No jury. The brand on the back of his neck and the tattoos on the insides of his elbows told them enough to slap a shock collar around his neck and put him on a ship.

Hard labor over life in prison.

Although he’d heard stories about people with his brand. Yanked out of jail and chained to another ship.

Wash, rinse, and repeat. 

The bowls of the transport ship were dim and smelled like sweat. The metal benches had ankle and wrist cuffs and Neil was the only one waiting.

He could tell by the stiffness in his body it was nearing 24 hours. He assumed the other people were getting a trial and they’d be along soon. A ship transporting one rat was hardly worth it. 

He’d spotted the rats that belonged to the transport ship a few hours ago but knew better than to speak to them. There were three meaning the engine was class ALPHA. None of them looked at him and he wouldn’t have if he were them.

Rats learned to be invisible. 

The bay door opened with a whoosh and Neil squinted, eyes watering. He wanted to shut his eyes and ignore the prisoners but curiosity got the better of him. There had to be at least thirty but Neil couldn’t count that high.

Two people were connected to Neil’s chain and his heart rate kicked up when he caught a glimpse of their faces. Although if he hadn’t known their faces, the patch on their coat sleeves gave them away.

_ Foxes. _

Even Neil’s ship did their best not to cross paths with a ring that traded people.

And not Neil’s people who were born and bred for slavery.

They stole and sold people for different matters. Their people weren’t rats.

Although, he was mildly surprised that they were getting hard labor and not a death sentence.

The one to Neil’s right had to be their medic. Maybe years ago his jacket had been for an elite medical school, but it was dirty, tattered, and faded. Embroidered letters were worn away and the FOX symbol had replaced one of a different shape.

The outline was still clear on the navy sleeve. 

He was paler than Neil with white blonde hair that was cut short. Rumor the captain was his twin but there’d never been a picture of the captain.

To Neil’s left was the navigation specialist. His flight suit gave it away with its special patches and markings. 

Rats catalogued rank by the markings so they knew who to stay away from.

The man to his left was darker like Neil. His curls were wet and there were bruises on his face. The medic had bruises too.

But despite the mans drawn features, him and the medic stiffened on either side of Neil.

Neil was looking at the floor but the black boots stopped sat in front of him.

“Sit or I’ll shock it again,” the guard hissed and the man in black boots laughed. His tattered red coat swung against his knees as he turned and sat on the bench across from Neil.

“Pull them tight so I can feel it. Gets me so fucking hard,” the man laughed, cut off by the buzz of the shock collar and sent into a choking laugh. “Ow fuck,” he moaned and then kicked out aimed between the guards legs. 

Another buzz.

Another choked moan. 

His hands moved up, cut short by the chain, and he growled. 

“I’m right next to you. Just keep listening to me,” he spat out and Neil was confused. He didn’t dare lift his eyes and the Foxes on either side of him made no move other than sitting tense at Neil’s sides. 

Another buzz but someone else let out a scream. 

The man in front of him lunged at the guards, getting nowhere. 

“Shock him again and I’ll feast on your tongue,” he snarled and the guard simply shocked him until he let out a guttural scream.

“Better,” the guard said and spat on his slumped form.

Neil was sweating and the bodies around him weren’t the cause. He’d been shocked plenty of times in the engines, but it was nothing compared to the punch packed into a shock collar.

Suddenly his collar felt too tight.

He was going to hyperventilate if they didn’t stop but apparently it drew the attention of the medic. 

“You’re gonna make the rat piss itself,” the medic said and the man across from Neil cackled. Neil was momentarily surprised by the high class accent the medic had but the panic took over when the speakers crackled telling them departure was in ten minutes. 

“Better not. I hate the smell of piss. It does and I tell the guards,” the man said. 

“Oh please Andrew,” the medic said with an eye roll Neil nearly missed. 

Time lapsed into stuffy silence filled with grunts and groans of the fellow prisoners. 

Neil’s stomach was starting to cramp from hunger and he hadn’t had any water since he boarded. 

Panic was setting in again, but he tried harder to hide it.

The alarm bells didn’t help.

Blasts of code that made Neil shiver. It was code for engine problems and those were the codes that killed rats. Usually burnt them alive. 

Neil shut his eyes tight and whispered directions to himself. He only worked on a BETA but engines were surprisingly similar. ALPHA was just bigger. 

Emergency landing protocol was barked over the speakers and the alarms didn’t stop.

Neil had no idea where they were or where they were headed, but the rough landing came sooner than he anticipated. 

A different code blasted and it was the one Neil hated. The one that told all personnel to disembark including rats. It was how he’d been lured out of his ship. The military made the captain punch it in and Neil walked right out into cuffs.

It didn’t matter that the ship was sold with the rat. That the rat was part of the ship no matter what it did. 

Neil was on board with 6 tons of illegal substances and therefore guilty.

The guards were back, barking orders and undoing cuffs for the prisoners to stand in line.

“Leave the rat,” the man across from Neil said and finally his eyes shot up to look into the nightmarish grin sat on an angelic face matching the medics. “We will need one,” he said not breaking eye contact with Neil.

The guard dropped Neil’s cuffs and moved on.

Now Neil was hyperventilating. 

Neil wrenched against the cuffs until they bit into his skin. He did it over and over until his blood ran hot on his hands.

He would not cry even if he knew they were about to sell him. It was obvious them being prisoners was a ruse to capture the ship. 

And soon there were just five of them in the dim dark. 

“You need to stop,” the medic said to Neil but he couldn’t stop straining against the cuffs.

“You really do. It’ll be okay.” The navigation specialist had a kinder voice, upper class like the medic, but Neil couldn’t believe him.

He was tired. He was hungry. He was thirsty. And now he was going to die chained to a bench in a random ship.

Footsteps. 

Neil jerked to a stop and listened to chains being unlocked. The guard uniform was right but this man hadn’t been with the others.

“Who is this?” he snapped, definitely pointing at Neil. The accent in his voice chilled Neil’s insides. Military.

“Ship this big needs a rat,” the man across from Neil said as he stood up. He said something in a whisper too but Neil couldn’t heal over his cuffs being unlocked. “We also need a mechanic,” he added as he pulled Neil to his feet. “Look at me!” he snapped and Neil’s eyes went up.

Someone stood behind the man as if he was his shadow. A large, towering shadow with no expression on his face. 

The medic was pulling Neil’s sleeve up as the man in front of Neil spoke.

“You will address me as Captain and only as Captain. The others are medic, navigational specialist, weapons specialist, and first mate,” he finished pointing to his shadow. “You are mechanic.”

“I can easily overwrite these and tag him somewhere else,” the medic said to the Captain pointing at the tattoos in Neil’s elbow crease. The medic’s hands then went to Neil’s head and turned him to look at the brand. “And this is nothing special,” he added. 

Neil clamped a hand over the brand. 

“I know rats can’t read or write, but can you at least speak?” the Captain asked.

“Yes,” Neil said with as much bite as he could muster. The Captain laughed. 

“Okay let’s set course,” the Captain said pushing past the group and heading for the stairs, his shadow holding his coat. “Check the engines rat and then give the report to navigations,” he added before climbing up.

The man who’d been to Neil’s left gave him a tight nod and followed the Captain with the medic.

The weapons specialist gave another look at Neil and held out his canteen.

“Engines are hot,” was all he said before climbing the stairs with the others and leaving Neil in the smelly belly.

He just stared confused. The shipped hummed as take off was prepared so Neil decided his best option was to go to the engines. He assumed there wasn’t actually danger and it was part of a commandeering, but he also knew no one would actually care if he burnt to a crisp in the engines.

He drank all the water from the canteen and looked at the entry point of the ALPHA. Definitely bigger than the BETA but he knew it’s guts were all the same.

It had been twelve whole days since he crawled through an engine and it was probably the conditioning, but he felt oddly homesick.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I suddenly have too many ideas for this lol thanks for reading!

The ALPHA engine was huge and Neil learned quick why they needed multiple rats. Everything was in working order, so he could cover it but if multiple problems arose things would become difficult very quickly. 

He knew the difference between trigger problems and stand alone engine trouble. The ship wasn’t one built for combat but with the fact that it was commandeered it could very well see open fire. 

Neil had been trained for combat problems that could cause an engine to sustain mild to heavy damage but war ships carried the most rats to man their engines.

He’d been in his BETA when they took fire that breached the hull and he was lucky it was just a patch job in a smaller engine. There was no way he could properly fix multiple punctures to an ALPHA if they were spread out. It took five minutes between the farthest points of the engine.

It worried him.

Neil crawled out and quietly headed to the bridge. He was trained to make calls from the boxes in the hull by the engine, but didn’t know the passcodes for the ship. So he meekly stood outside the bridge trying and failing not to listen.

The Captain was yelling about cargo to a muffled voice probably over a call. 

From the doorway, Neil could see the others spread around the bridge at their assigned posts. 

The first mate was at the tactician point leaving only communications, tech, and the mechanic seats open. The Captain was in the flight seat and while most Captain’s didn’t fly their ships anymore, it wasn’t unheard of. 

None of them seemed to be paying attention to the door. They were bent over their screens and even though the first mate’s eyes drifted over Neil, he didn’t acknowledge the rat.

That got Neil angry.

They stole him. It wasn’t his ship or his engine or even an engine he could handle and yet, as always, he was forced to take it. To accept that he was to do as he was told.

He was a rat.

A lifetime of training kept him from crossing the threshold though. 

The Captain stood up abruptly, knocking everything off his desk, on purpose, and then wrenched the desk chair off its track. 

“Withdrawal,” the medic said to the first mate. The others didn’t even flinch, just continued on with their work.

“When can we get more?” the first mate asked and Neil was kind of surprised he could speak. High class accent like the others too. There were too many high class accents for pirates. It made Neil wary.

“I’m fine!” the Captain snapped at the medic, his brother.

“You reek of Nex!” he snapped back and Neil shuddered. Nex, which Neil’s ship had referred to as P, was a highly illegal drug found mainly in the club scene. Purely synthetic and highly addictive, it was sold in cubes that the user would slice thin to melt on their tongues. 

Neil had met rats strung out on the upper. It made work easier. It made work with burns easier.

Neil supposed slavers high on P shouldn’t be as surprising as it felt. 

The Captain stormed out of the bridge, stopping briefly to snarl at Neil and point inside, and then stalked off down the hall.

The medic and the first mate were now looking at him since the Captain was gone. Neil still didn’t enter the bridge.

Luckily the medic slipped out the door. “I’ll remove the tattoos in the infirmary,” he said walking off as if Neil was supposed to follow. He did but the infirmary was another off limits place. Rats in need of medical care were to receive it in their own quarters when the on staff medic was free or when supplies was dropped off. 

Neil watched the medic type numbers into the door keypad so that the light shifted from red to green and then was the sound of a mechanical lock opening. 

The medic held the door open for Neil. “We don’t keep slaves on this ship,” he said when Neil didn’t move. 

The brand on the back of Neil’s neck felt hot. 

“People said you were slavers,” Neil said boldly only because he was pretty sure the medic wasn’t armed. 

The medic snorted. “Good. The more they think that the better,” he said and motioned for Neil to go inside. “Look, this will take awhile and at some point I need to make sure Andrew doesn’t try to eject himself again.”

Neil’s crossed his arms, conflicted. It wasn’t just going into a space he’d spent twenty-one years knowing was off limits and breaking the rules lead to severe punishment. 

It was also that it was required a rat receive one new flight suit a year and the one he wore was old and near tearing. He didn’t know if he wanted to take if off partly in fear that it’d fall off when he put it back on. He didn’t have another rat issued flight suit. There was probably one on the ship, but he didn’t have it and he’d been whipped enough to know that flight suit was imperative. 

Even if the medic claimed they didn’t keep slaves on the ship. 

But the medic giving Neil an exasperated look was enough to snap him out of his worry and shift into follow directions mode. 

Neil also noticed that, oddly enough the exasperation made the medic look more like his brother. The medic had done a good job of keeping his face neutral the whole time.

Neil took a careful step into the sterile environment. He’d never been in one, but he recognized a lot of supplies. 

The medic pointed to the chair and went to wash his hands. “This pain will be minimal, but I’m going to use a solution with an acid base to burn away the tattoo and skin. It’s a controlled burn and won’t go too deep. It might require some extra care, but usually heavy duty burn cream will heal it with no scar,” he said talking fast like he did it all the time. 

“So expensive stuff?” Neil asked. He was very familiar with burn cream but his always left scarring.

“Yes,” the medic said pulling on gloves before opening cabinets and drawers. Neil watched him as he gathered what he needed and began mixing things together. The air took on a very chemical smell that tickled the danger sensors in Neil’s brain.

Chemical smells in an engine were bad news and usually meant distress calls had to be made.

“Did you go to medical school?” Neil asked, anxious to fill the stretching silence.

“Yeah, a surgeon program,” the medic said and brought the mixture over to Neil and sat on a stool. “You need to take off the flight suit. At least the top half,” he said laying instruments and bandages out. 

Neil hesitated and unzipped. His torso was covered in burns and whip scars, but the medic didn’t even flinch. He just took Neil’s arm and stretched it out under a special lamp.

He drew a box around the tattoo with a silver pen and then began dabbing the thick opaque chemical solution on it. He covered it with gauze and then held Neil’s forearm down.

He looked up. “I don’t want you to panic and move when it starts to burn,” he explained and then lapsed into silence.

It was uncomfortable, but Neil held still as the pain slowly radiated through him. It was like a coil burn; sharp but manageable. 

The Captain burst in when the medic was peeling the gauze away to clean off the solution.

“Did it work?!” he snapped at the medic who didn’t look up.

“Yeah,” he said slathering burn cream over Neil’s skin before bandaging it again. Neil didn’t get a good look, but there was no sign of the ship number in the glimpse he got.

The Captain jerked Neil’s head around suddenly looking right at the ugly brand of a rat. Listing that he was born into slavery and was to go to the shipyards. It had the year of his birth but no day or month and the system he was born in.

“What about this?!” the Captain snapped and the medic sighed, moving to Neil’s other side.

“I have told you that the only way to undo a brand is a skin graft. You could always take a knife to it again but that will only disfigure it,” the medic explained as he set up to remove the other tattoo marking Neil.

“I’m not remarking him,” the Captain spat at his brother and released Neil’s head.

“Then don’t let people get close to him or give him a knife,” the medic snapped back, finally facing his brother. The Captain’s eyes glittered with rage but he stalked out. 

“He smells like P,” Neil said quietly when he was sure the Captain was gone.

“He likes to walk a fine line with addiction,” the medic said. “It’s rough on all of us but he isn’t ready to look at the person the drugs leave behind. It’s probably our flaw that we let him do this, but after what happened to Kevin, we gave it to him so he wouldn’t try to eject himself again.”

With his other arm done, Neil could carefully zip his flight suit as he asked who Kevin was. 

“Oh the first mate,” the medic said as he gathered medication Neil assumed was going to the Captain. “Kevin definitely would have been a Captain though. When I met him he was on his way to being the youngest ranked Captain.”

“But you said something happened?” Neil asked and the medic gave him a confused look.

“You didn’t realize?” he asked. “Kevin, the first mate, is blind.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi I'm in love with writing this. I'm low key afraid people are going to think it's too OOC and not like it but just trust me. Enjoy!

Neil sat in the mechanics chair. The medic had forced him through the bridge door and sat him in the mechanic chair before going over to Kevin.

If Neil was going to be forced to break the rules, then he’d go against orders and learn names. 

The First Mate was Kevin and the Captain was Andrew. Neil couldn’t remember the medics name but he looked like an Ethan. One of the P dealers was a pale guy with greasy hair and the same blank face and he was an Ethan.

The Navigation Specialist kind of looked like one of the guys on Neil’s old ship who called himself Jose and had a pretty girlfriend named Maria who would talk to Neil and bring him good food.

She was dusted in a raid. He watched them shoot her ashes into space out a little portside window. He took two hits for not being in the engine. 

Neil glanced at the military guy. He wasn’t built like a slab of enhanced meat, but in Neil’s short dealings with military he’d learned they all had stupid names like Brusier. So that’s what he dubbed military man.

It was actually an old game they played in training. Him and the other munchkins would name the handlers and the teachers and sometimes the older kids.

He had no one to play with when he was tied to a beta.

He watched the medic speak in a low voice to Kevin as he set up medication. Neil saw the needle and really hoped he wasn’t about to do some gross shit like poke it in Kevin’s eyeballs. 

They were holding hands and their heads were bent together, their skin turned blue by the tactician screens in front of Kevin.

Neil had only glanced at the mechanic screen and saw a bunch of numbers and letters. There was a large schematic of the ship drawn out in detail on the top of the desk but Neil figured it all being lit up blue was a good thing.

The ship was fucking huge though. Which Neil had assumed based on the alpha engine but still. His old ship fit into the loading bay.

“Hey,” said a voice making Neil jump but it was just navigation. He held out a pile of clothes. “I wasn’t thorough, but I found some clothes that might fit you that weren’t flight suits.”

“I like my flight suit,” Neil said automatically.

“Yeah but it’s got the other ship ID on it,” he said and Neil could see the problem but he also wasn’t being given another flight suit. 

“I can only wear flight suits,” Neil said. He had only ever worn a flight suit or been naked.

“There are unmarked suits by the engine that can go over your clothes but you need something different,” Navigation said but didn’t raise his voice which Neil found suspicious. He narrowed his eyes and navigation gave him a surprised look. “Aaron can you tell him?” he said turning to the medic and Kevin.

Neil frowned. He liked Ethan better. But the medic stood and took the clothes. He yanked the empty comms chair loose and moved it to sit in front of Neil. Neil watched him sort through the clothes and read their tags, making two piles.

Navigation stood watching.

Neil moved his eyes the the worn flight jacket on the medic. He had multiple faded patches and stripes and letters. 

“You said you were in a surgeon program,” Neil said slowly hoping the medic didn’t say the coat came off a body. 

“Yep,” was all he said as he began going through the right pile again. 

“Where’s the flight jacket from?” Neil asked quietly. The ship ID number had been ripped off long ago since there wasn’t even a faded mark.

“It’s mine,” he said and put a small pile of clothes on Neil’s lap and then looked him in the eye. “These are going to fit you best and you need to change,” he said. “I can show you the bathroom.”

“I can only wear my flight-” Neil was cut off by the bridge door wooshing open and the Captain barreling inside looking rather hysterical.

The medic jumped up to intercept him, both twins crashing together as the medic held the Captain’s wrists and the Captain screamed. 

“DON’T TOUCH ME. DON’T TOUCH ME,” he repeated as he struggled against his brother.

“Andrew!” the medic barked back but Andrew kept pulling until the medic had enough momentum to pull him to the ground. Navigation showed up with Kevin in tow who dropped to the ground and took Andrew’s face in his hands. 

The Captain looked miles away but he stopped struggling. He was harshly panting, but Neil watched the medic slid the Captain’s coat off.

“Different day, different time,” Kevin said. “You were picked up 4 years and 281 days ago,” he said his thumbs caressing Andrew’s cheeks as the medic slid a needle into a port on his bicep. 

“4 years doesn’t compare to 14,” Andrew said with a bitter laugh, his eyelids drooping. Neil was pretty sure there was a piercing through the Captain’s tongue but continued to say nothing about all the bizarre things going on.

Andrew slumped against Kevin’s chest, asleep and Neil watched Kevin card his fingers through messy blonde hair.

Kevin looked up at navigation. “He wanted the long way but I’m countering it because we need to stop at Port Vivay for supplies so reroute us 180 and take us through the least guarded path. Dan erased our heat sig so we should get by slippery but I want a read out of all guard ships at my desk to compile for our exit.”

“Yes sir,” Navigation said and the medic stood.

“Let’s go change,” Aaron said to Neil and Neil stood. He stepped around Kevin and Andrew to follow the medic not because he wanted to change, but so he could get a better look at the brand on Andrew’s neck.

Nei. now knew what the medic was talking about when he said a knife couldn’t get rid of the brand but even under the carnage Neil could see enough.

Andrew hadn’t been born into slavery or gone to the shipyards.

He’d been taken and sold to a pleasure house.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the comments! Enjoy!!

Kevin and Andrew were gone when Aaron brought him back to the bridge. Aaron spoke with navigation in a low voice before he left with the military guy and Aaron went up to the flight deck.

Neil sat in the mechanic chair for about ten seconds before following Aaron up. 

Neil was blown away by the windows. Even though they were shuttered by hologlass for hyperspeed, he’d never seen a window so big. It went from the floor of the flight deck and then up, up, up probably encompassing the entirety of the ships front.

“He will be okay,” Aaron said as Neil stared at the windows. “You can go sleep. I can show you an empty bunk.”

That broke Neil’s wonder. He looked at Aaron confused, “I was just going to use the bunks by the engine.”

The words  _ rat hole  _ sat heavy on his tongue, but with the way they were treating him he decided against the terminology he was used to.

“There are plenty of empty bunks in the sleeping wing,” Aaron said and turned back to the switchboard in front of him. Neil remained quiet watching his fingers dance over the keys. 

Neil wasn’t tired but he was kind of hungry. The protein substitute shake Aaron had handed him in the infirmary hadn’t been enough.

“I thought you were the medic,” Neil forced out. 

“I am,” Aaron said pushing his fingers through his hair and hitting another sequence of buttons. “I’m putting it in automatic flight pattern mode,” he said but to Neil that still sounded like the Captain’s job. Or at the least Kevin’s… but with everything he saw an hour ago maybe seeing Aaron at the helm wasn’t so weird.

“Who taught you to fly?” Neil asked.

“Kevin,” Aaron said and turned to Neil. “I graduated a surgeon and immediately applied to the flight program. Someone with my skill and recommendations got me placed on Kevin’s team as he was working to advance as Captain.” Aaron stood up and pulled a scratched holo glass from his pocket. It was no bigger than Neil’s palm but Aaron and Kevin’s faces reflected back at him; Aaron’s flight jacket shining new and Kevin decked out in Captain colors.

“What went wrong?” Neil asked looking up at Aaron but he only sighed.

“Absolutely nothing,” Aaron said going down the stairs. 

“But something must have?” Neil asked looking at the hologlass again and then at Aaron sitting heavy in Kevin’s chair; a faded image of the picture.

“In the surgeon program you get assigned to a hospital in another quad and I was mistaken multiple times for Andrew so I looked into him. Found out where he was I guess working,” Aaron said with air quotes, “and set up at meeting with him. He said fuck off. I left, graduated, did a DNA test, and applied to a flight program. My intention was to get close, grab him, and then disappear.”

“And Kevin found out?” Neil asked but Aaron shook his head.

“My cousin found out. Nav? That’s Nicky, my cousin. He told Kevin so I wouldn’t die and it’d give him time to try to work something out. No surprise we were told the only way to get him was to buy him,” Aaron sighed. “That’s when it kind of all went to shit even though we did it all knowing Kevin would take the blame and face life in jail or be stripped and blackballed as a Captain. We heard stories about some people being mutilated, but that’s all they were; stories.”

“Who did it?” Neil asked.

“A real sick fuck who went to school with Kevin. He was the arresting offer but they only let him take his eyes because his family funnels money into the police. They can deny the slave trade all they want, but we all know that family has dealt in slaves since the ships needed rats.”

Neil shuddered. The name was always a whisper; a bedtime story the older kids would whisper to watch the munchkins wet their beds.

“Andrew will be okay though,” Aaron said. “He was so drugged up when we got him but now he uses a lot less. He just gets kind of crazy without routine and even though he said it was fine, the whole prisoner ploy and cuffs definitely set him off,” Aaron said and Neil finally handed the hologlass back.

Things made some sense, but a lot of things didn’t make any sense.

“But you sell slaves!” Neil said pointing an accusing fingers.

“We liberate them,” Aaron said. “We take a shipment and move them to safe locations. Others started to get suspicious so our comms wrote multiple articles exposing,” more air quotes, “us as bad guys.”

Neil looked at the empty comms chair and then back at Aaron. “Two years ago we hit trouble that dusted our weapons guy. Our pilot got a police badge to get stuff off our tails and in a heist this big we needed her offshores and with backup. She took our tech and comms and our mechanic to make sure everything goes slippery,” Aaron said. “Nicky’s boyfriend was happy to help liberate slaves and personnel with a military badge does wonders.”

Now Neil had a headache. Maybe they were all on P.

“I want to go to bed,” he said. “And I’m hungry.”

=====================================

Neil had never been off ship until he was arrested. Well, there was time when he was little in the shipyards but even though it was on the ground, he’d never left the complex.

He’d docked in Port Vivay multiple times. The ship went in easy and no alarms blared, but when they were in tight and ready to deploy, the medic stood in the engine quarters waiting for him.

Except he wasn’t wearing his flight jacket. 

“Captain?” Neil tried and got a nod. He was in a navy flight suit with no sign of the person he’d been the other day.

“We move together,” the Captain said.

“I wasn’t planning on going to port,” Neil said quietly. 

“Kevin is staying with the ship and Aaron has he own errands. I need someone who won’t enable me,” the Captain said. Neil gave him a confused look. The Captain had dark circles under his eyes and his lips were dry and cracked. His hands were still shaking slightly, but he seemed...subdued. 

“What?” Neil asked. 

“I’m not buying more Nex,” he said and Neil startled. He’d watched withdrawal kill people...drive them insane.

The Captain’s eyes narrowed. “I get enough shit from Aaron,” he said. “But it needs to stop. It’s needed to stop for awhile…”

“Why are you telling me?” Neil asked and the Captain’s manic grin flickered across his face.

“Because who’d believe a rat?”

So Neil stepped off the ship for the first time. He could feel the phantom weight of the shock collar. It had been released with the cuffs but tons of rats were collared without police involvement. 

The crowd was thick, suffocating. The moved with the flow but Neil could tell from the stiff way the Captain walked he hated it. 

They had to move to the side eventually so that the Captain could hurl into a trash bin. Neil stared at the neon signs full of words he couldn’t read. Telling him things he wasn’t allowed to know.

“Arban coffee. From the 1st ward,” Neil said to the Captain. 

“What?” the Captain spit. He wiped his mouth on his sleeve before turning to face Neil. 

“Arban coffee. It was given to us because it was cheap and everything but it isn’t actual coffee. It’s a stimulant but isn’t addictive and is best for settling stomachs,” Neil explained. He’d had it often, sick or not, but it was a trick he’d been taught before being sent to a ship. 

“Where can we find it?” the Captain asked. He was paler and sweating and Neil was starting to get nervous. He had no medical knowledge and Neil had no idea what he’d do if it was anything like the other night.

He wasn’t Kevin or Aaron and if the Captain lost it while they were in the port alone Neil would panic.

And they’d probably be arrested.

Again. 

“A supply store?” Neil suggested. He’d heard talk from crew about going to the supply store so hopefully Port Vivay had one.

The Captain nodded and they slid back into the crowd.

Neil followed past people and things, stores and lights and food. 

And then the Captain stopped dead. He whirled around, gripping Neil’s collar and pulling him to the wall. 

“Don’t touch me,” the Captain hissed and then pushed his body against Neil’s to smush him against the wall and effectively cover him despite Neil being slightly taller than the Captain.

Neil held his breath. Metal had hugged him, but another body had never been so close to him.

“There are slavers,” the Captain whispered. He smelled like sweat and puke but the P was almost gone. A faint sticky sweet underneath it all. “You’d be easy to snatch,” he added. 

Neil wondered what slavers would do with him. A boy who already had a brand. 

“The supply store is a few down. Hold on to my flight suit and do not let go ever,” the Captain said moving back. Air reentered Neil’s lungs and sound that wasn’t only the Captain rushed his ears.

The Captain held out the belt loop that would normally hold equipment. Neil took it and the Captain nodded.

The moved and Neil held on tight and noted some of the stiffness in the Captain had shifted. He was on edge but for different reasons now.

“Aaron said you needed routine,” Neil said when they were spit out into a blinding white store. The shelves were stuffed with stuff Neil recognized so he hoped the coffee would be there.

He still held tight to the belt loop.

“Routines leaves less time for thinking,” the Captain said as they wove between aisles. “But it all sucks. It was the cuffs though. Last time,” he said and Neil nodded. 

When the stopped, the Captain pulled a tin off the shelf and held it out to Neil. 

“Yeah that’s it,” Neil said and the Captain took as much as he could carry.

“Don’t tell Aaron what I’m doing,” the Captain said and Neil nodded again. He still didn’t really know what was going on or what he was doing there. 


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so you know in Pirates of the Caribbean Curse of the Black Pearl when they are trying to get away from Barbossa so they attempt to dump things overboard so that their ship is lighter and then can get over the shoals? But it doesn't work so they drop anchor to cause the ship to swing around and face Barossa's ship side to side?? This chapter is heavily inspired by those mechanics. Enjoy!

Arban coffee stank. In the engines, it masked the smell of sweat and heat but on the bridge it felt too strong. It made Neil kind of dizzy when he sat at the mechanic chair looking at plans of the ALPHA. It helped that it was mostly pictures and it didn’t matter that he couldn’t read the words. He’d been able to piece together their relative plan. They’d get their cargo and head to the drop off before taking a sharp detour. From what Kevin had said it was a tricky flight because there would be police check points.

Neil hadn’t found the strength to tell them there was no way he could handle an entire ALPHA engine for what they wanted to do. ALPHAs usually had three rats and he was just one.

The Captain sat in his chair diligently sipping his eighth cup of Arban coffee and staring at the back of his brothers head. 

It had been relatively quiet since they’d left the port. With their stop coming up, the crew had gotten quieter. 

“You aren’t supposed to touch my ship!” the Captain bit out at his brother. Neil watched them out of the corner of his eye. Aaron ignored the Captain but Kevin turned.

“He had to,” Kevin said but the Captain ignored him. 

“Your flight signature is so obvious,” the Captain said and it got Aaron’s attention. 

“You don’t like it because it’s better than yours,” Aaron snapped. “I learned from the best and you learned from me. Deal with it already.”

The Captain went over and dumped the coffee on his brother before leaving the bridge. The medic stalked after him. 

Nicky slid his chair to Neil’s station before slipping into a whisper. “Don’t try to make sense of it,” he whispered to Neil.

“I wasn’t.”

“They are both too attached to Kevin,” Nicky said ignoring Neil. “He and Aaron were together before things went tits up. Don’t know when they broke it off but now it’s Andrew and Kevin. Andrew gets mad when Aaron uses what Kevin taught him because Andrew thinks his brother is a coward or something. That’s all I’ve been able to piece together,” Nicky continued. “Andrew feels Aaron should have walked away from all of this too when he walked away from Kevin.”

Neil thought it sounded unnecessarily complicated. He also thought it was weird that the first conversation he had with Nicky was gossip. But he guessed it made sense since Nicky’s boyfriend wasn’t on the bridge and he couldn’t gossip with Kevin about Kevin.

“Guess I should go find them,” Nicky sighed and patted Neil on the shoulder. “Gotta smooth this over so no one dies on the mission. Dan would be pissed and I don’t need her conjuring my ghost just to yell at it. I’ll fill you in later,” he said as he left. 

“Okay?” Neil said watching him go. He didn’t need to know but figured Nicky would tell him anyway if Neil was the only one around. Neil glanced over at Kevin across the bridge and quickly looked down when he saw the irritation on Kevin’s face. He briefly wondered if either twin was or had been close to Kevin. It made some sense and they did all seem to be tense around each other but there were also a hundred different factors to consider as well.

Or ignore it. None of it was Neil’s problem and he almost liked the Foxes better when they were just wanted posters and a scary story.

Now there was drama and a heist that Neil found very implausible even though they all talked like they had done something similar a thousand times. 

Which was great but Neil also wondered how many enemies were after them if they were freeing droves of slaves.

Neil decided he had to ignore it to dampen any possible fear and so he went through the engine plans again, memorizing where levers and valves were. In the early days, the knowledge had been there but once he’d been paired with a BETA he only retained BETA information.

“Rat come here!” Kevin snapped. Neil wondered how much trouble he’d get in if he just left. He debated too long though and the first mate yelled again.

Neil went to Kevin and held his breath. This man had run a proper ship which meant he had rats he never had to look at so him having Neil in his direct presence was definitely a show of how low he’d fallen.

“This ship runs with an ALPHA,” Kevin said and Neil nodded before remembering that Kevin was blind.

“Yeah,” he whispered and Kevin grunted.

“The way we are going to fly requires more hands so I’m sending Andrew down with you,” he said.

“What?” Neil asked startled. 

“His flying is ace but he knows ALPHA engines already,” Kevin said. “I can do this flight with Aaron. We’ve done it before,” Kevin said. “When we head out with the cargo, I’ll send you two down to turn off certain grav locks and then you’ll have to manually shift the grav on the engine when we go through the asteroid field in ward 8. I want precise lines and quick flying. I know he can do it but you have to too or I’ll throw you off this ship. We can take hits, but if we go offline that’s 400 bodies on you,” Kevin finished quickly and Neil stared. 

He had never flown battle maneuvers or anything that required manual grav locks. 

Neil was back to thinking everyone on the ship was insane.

But then their cargo was loaded and Neil was tasked with locking safety belts. He couldn’t look the slaves in the eye. They stank, they were dirty, they were hungry, and all of them had been stolen away.

Neil went with the crew locking belts around young and old. Some of the people seemed half dead and Neil almost threw up. He was glad to finally escape to the engine and climb in.

The Captain was already there.

After hours of arguing and yelling, mostly from the medic, everyone reluctantly took their positions. Apparently in the first year the Captain had learned the ins and outs of a ship. He had a perfect memory for it.

As for Kevin, flight controls didn’t change but he needed Aaron for the screens. They’d flown together for awhile after he went blind so it wasn’t new, but Aaron was also claustrophobic and sending him into the engines was probably not the best idea. 

The Captain was in an engine jumpsuit with mag boots for when they cut gravity. Everyone was staying in cargo, the bridge, or in the engines, so to lighten the ship for speed they were going to cut gravity everywhere else.

Once they got through the checkpoints and entered ward 8 they’d need the giant ship to make hairpin turns and that was best done by cutting gravity on either side of the engine to give momentum to turn the big rig and avoid getting hit. 

“We’ve got to be slippery,” the Captain said before clunking through the engine to his post. Aaron would make the calls and Neil looked up at his controls.

The engine was fairly new so she’d be able to handle the evasive turns usually left to smaller war class ships with smaller engines.

And worrying about the engines at least gave him less time to worry that a blind man was flying the ship. It didn’t matter how good he was; he was blind.

“We are all going to fucking die,” Neil muttered and started hitting grav locks on Kevin’s command as the journey started.

Rats had their grown hormones genetically engineered so that they did not get tall. The tallest rat barely made it to 5’5 and it was always the smaller the better. Rats were small so that they could walk and crawl through ship engines to perform tasks and repairs.

It was a profession in the early days, but with more ships the demand went up and thus slavery and breeding programs started and everyone turned a blind eye to it.

There were three classes of engine for a rat, ALPHA, BETA, and OMEGA. While ALPHA engines were marketed as biggest, it was really they were the most powerful. Freight ships had the larger OMEGA engines, but the ships were slow and only used for import and export. An OMEGA usually needed a minimum of six rats.

Working alone, Neil had never really thought about being on the taller side for a rat, but watching the Captain rush through the tunnels and twists and turns made Neil feel the extra inches when he had to duck.

The Captain was ideal rat size and would have gone to a good ship if he were a rat.

The mag boots were heavy and felt heavier as Neil’s anxiety built when Aaron called out their progression over the speakers. 

Neil was already sweating, the engines were always fiery hot and dangerous during a flight, but nothing had gone wrong yet. Neil didn’t say anything about hating anti-grav but really hoped he didn’t puke when he had to disengage and reengage his side. But it was a very likely thing.

“This tastes like absolute dog shit,” the Captain said squatting by Neil with his thermos of Arban coffee. 

“I’ve never seen a dog,” Neil said.

“You aren’t missing anything,” the Captain said passing Neil the thermos. “Drink it. I’m not flying around with puke hitting me.”

Neil drank to the sound of Aaron rattling off coordinates. 

“There’s about four seconds around each time you hit the switch. Sometimes reengaging gravity takes a little longer. If it’s been over 20 seconds yell for me and I’ll open the panel. If we take a hit read the screens and don’t listen to control. We can assess and fix things faster,” the Captain said and stood. Neil stood up and handed the thermos back.

“Okay,” Neil said. The Captain nodded and clomped back down the tunnel to the port side. Neil had starboard.

Proximity sensors and alarms went off before Neil knew it and that was their intro to the mostly barren 8th ward. It was the quickest route to 10 though and the least likely to have check points or followers. 

No one said they were going to 10 but Neil assumed. Different families owned different wards and a particular family controlled most families that owned wards. Out of the sixteen wards out there, only 10 and 3 were ones that weren’t controlled behind the scenes. 

Neil knew who owned the largest slave trade, he knew which family lined their pockets with money from slaves like the Captain and those in the cargo hold. They were running from a controlled ward to a free one where the people could be released. Neil didn’t need to be a genius to see it.

Music filtered in through the speakers and Neil paused. His last ship never played music. 

_ On my count _ Aaron’s voice crackled over the music and proximity alarms.  _ Hit port off so we swing through 2 grade B’s. Gonna be real slick. Nice and tight but this girl is less than half weight so she’ll swing in seconds. When we are through get ready to juggle. Port on three, two, one! _

Neil felt the ship vibrate and the momentum of the swing would have knocked him over if not for his mag boots. He attempted to keep his eyes on their screens, but had to look away because it made him nauseated. 

_ Get ready to juggle in three, two, one! _

Neil pulled his lever and shuddered as he went weightless, held down by his mag boots only. He felt like a chuck of meat supplement in a bowl of soup as the ship swung again and his body twisted with it.

_ Level out and hold it. We haven’t got to the thick of it but get ready for some fast moves. Nav is trying to get us out in the open or we will be taking smaller hits especially to the bow. Won’t activate shields unless dire. This ship has no blast so it’s all flight. _

Listening to Aaron rattle off what was happening made Neil wonder why he wasn’t Captain and what Andrew would have been like in the pilots seat.

When things were getting sticky and the ship was swinging left and right constantly, Neil was sure he was going to lose his stomach. Aaron claimed they were taking small hits, but each one was jarring enough to rattle Neil’s teeth. The alarms screamed at him and he could only manage brief glances at the screens between swings. 

Luckily nothing seemed to be broken so they weren’t going to die.

Well, Neil was pretty sure he was going to die but not in a crash or because they were smashed by asteroids. 

Another port swing ended with Neil breathing shallow and sweating with his eyes squeezed shut in a weak attempt to keep it together but Aaron’s announcement sent white hot relief flooding through him.

_ And we are clear folks. We will arrive at Grandiose Capitol Port in ward 10 in roughly 30. _

Neil dropped to his knees and took some shaky breaths. He’d heard about rats on war ships not lasting long and he understood why.

The Captain clomped back over to him and sat down.

“You’ll get used to it,” the Captain said.

“You’ve done this before?” Neil wheezed.

“It’s where good ol Kevin insisted on practicing,” the Captain laughed. “Always in smaller ships though and it was definitely different on drugs.”

Neil stared at him. “Why are you captain?” he asked and the Captain looked at him with sadness reflected in his otherwise blank eyes.

“So that I’ve got some semblance of control.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Took a little break, but here we go again folks! Thanks to everyone reading!!
> 
> Warning for very extremely brief mention of people touching little Andrew.

When they were docked in the Grandiose Port, Police Captain Wilds entered the cargo bay where all crew and cargo waited. She was in a crisp black and silver uniform, but there was mischief in her eyes. The brand gun in her right hand said it all. Neil put the pieces together before she addressed the crowd.

“Today, you will be branded with bought freedom,” she said and the gasp rattling through the ship echoed in Neil’s ears. “While it is suggested that you remain in Grandiose, if you want to find relatives or family, there will be officers here to assist you.”

Bought freedom brands couldn’t be overwritten. Neil supposed someone could be captured and had the skin removed and grafted but that was a lot of work and money for a slave.

“What about the rat?” a bold slave asked and heads turned to look at Neil. All the heads turned and he didn’t know what he was supposed to say. He wasn’t about to go wander Grandiose. He didn’t have skills outside of engines and no ship would take a wandering rat.

Neil bolted.

It was the only thing he could do after running his fingers over the lumpy lines on his neck. He wasn’t anything without the designation. Sure he sat on the bridge with the others but it was all pretend. He didn’t go to fancy schools or earn honors and medals. 

He woke up in the training facility and left on a ship. He’d named himself, he had no family, he had nothing outside of the fire breathing metal that wouldn’t ever love him back.

The ALPHA hummed, resting idle and cool in the port. She waited patiently to be back in the sky although Neil didn’t know what was next. What he’d overheard was a lot of arguing about getting their old ship back even though the new ship was bigger. But that meant Kevin wanted to practice more before taking another job from their contact.

Whoever ran the 3rd and 10th wards was secretive, but obviously funding everything from the freedom to the pockets of the Foxes. 

Neil could smell the Arban coffee before he saw the Captain. Neil was hidden away in the innards of the ALPHA but the Captain found him without trouble and stood almost on top of Neil. 

Neil didn’t look up at him but instead at the dirty hem of the red coat the Captain wore. Maybe once it was a nice fabric, but it was threadbare, dirty, and missing the bottom button at least. 

Neil hadn’t looked close but he was sure the Captain pulled patches and stripes off it although Neil wasn’t even sure where one would get a coat like it. He’d never seen once, not even one with the same cut.

“You are real fucking dramatic, you know that?” the Captain asked and Neil gave him a shrug. Yeah running from freedom probably looked that way but that wasn’t the problem. It was whatever came after the freedom that made Neil worry.

“If they can give freedom that easily why didn’t you take it?” Neil asked finally looking up at the Captain. The Captain’s face was so utterly blank that Neil felt like he was looking at a statue. 

“Why did you run?” the Captain asked instead. Neil gave another shrug.

“What’s next? I lived a life I was born into. I have no wants or desires. The engine is my home,” Neil told him and the Captain snorted. 

“That’s pathetic,” he said and it made Neil mad. 

“I was born into it!” Neil snapped. “I was never free before like you!” he shouted and that made the Captain stop. He rolled glassy eyes to pierce Neil, burn him, as he whispered the cold truth.

“I was sold off as an infant. Drug money according to brother dearest. Luckily the drugs killed the bitch before I could, but I did not ever taste freedom until I was dragged from the pleasure house,” the Captain said, voice low and icy. “My earliest memories were cleaning toilets. I cleaned until someone got a taste for little boys,” he said and Neil felt sick. “The drugs took it all away. I didn’t have to think about tomorrow ever. I got the damn freedom brand and fucking hated it!” he shouted at Neil and Neil was so startled that he laughed. At the Captain’s glare Neil shut his mouth.

“What happened next?” Neil whispered and the Captain turned around. Neil stared at the faded Fox on the back of his coat.

“I’m still trying to figure out if what I’m doing is a good idea,” he said and Neil raised his eyes to the jagged scars on the back of the Captain’s neck. “Take the freedom,” he added.

“But I-” Neil started but that Captain held up a hand.

“Get it and then come find me on the bridge,” he said and walked away from Neil.

His whole life he’d heard the word stay, but it was always an order. It was never an option. People gave him the order knowing he was obedient, they didn’t say it only to hope that he would.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's been so long. Enjoy!

Neil couldn’t keep his fingers away from the brand. He’d grown used to how the old one felt but now the skin was different. Everything was warped by a PF and two stars. It hurt a lot when it was first done, but the pain went away as fast as it arrived leaving his skin warm and different.

He sat huddled in the corner, content with the floor with the bridge now full. The police officer was engaged with a large whispering match with the first mate and the medic.

The tall mechanic had asked him a few questions about the engine until Neil said he really didn’t want to talk about it. She disappeared off the bridge with the Captain so Neil sat on the floor and ignored how tech and comms kept glancing between him and the police officer. 

Everyone went silent when they could hear yelling outside the bridge doors. Neil noticed Kevin was the first to the door and Aaron watched him go looking … defeated? Jealous? Neil wasn’t sure. 

The police officer went to the door next when the yelling got louder and then there were calls for Aaron. 

“I’m not on fucking drugs!” the Captain roared bursting back onto the bridge and making a beeline for Neil. 

The Captain stood looking down at Neil with … fear? Anger? Neil wasn’t used to so much emotion locked in someones eyes. Neil held his fingers against the new brand ready to argue he was free now if they tried something.

The Captain held a hollow card, glaring at it and then looking a Neil before throwing the hollow full force at the wall so that it shattered.

“How old were you when you became a slave?” the police officer, Dan, asked Neil. He frowned. 

“I was the kind that was born into it,” he said flatly. “But the new brand still gives me freedom,” he added quickly, but they weren’t listening. Everyone was whispering and the Captain was staring at him. 

“What’s your name?” the Captain asked quietly. 

“It’s Neil,” Neil whispered as the Captain crouched down and leaned in really close. Neil couldn’t go anywhere, he was cornered and the Captain was too close. Neil held his breath.

“We are going to do a DNA test and then I’ll check for a memory lock,” Aaron said at last and the Captain tensed. 

“They have different eyes,” the Captain said but Neil wasn’t sure who he was talking to. Neil knew his eyes were blue but his reflection was delivered in shiny metal. He hadn’t ever looked in a proper mirror, but even he knew the blue was too cold.

People commented on it on his old ship. Said it was only a color you got for the right price; not just a rich prick fucking the nearest slave.

But it was all whispers…

“Tell them no,” the Captain whispered to Neil, still leaning close enough for his breath to feather across Neil’s cheek.

“I know I’m bending the rules, but he could be a key piece in the open case against the Moriyama’s,” Dan said and Neil’s eyes snapped to her. He was not about to get even more mixed up in the Moriyama slave trade. They supplied almost the whole universe with slaves and Neil didn’t need a target on his back.

“No,” Neil said. 

“You don’t get a choice!” Kevin snapped. But before Neil could say anything the Captain had stood up and the mechanic grabbed his coat before he lunged.

“Not everything is about you!” the Captain roared and Kevin looked shocked. Aaron stepped forward.

“I’m going to talk to Neil in my office in private,” he said holding a hand out to Neil. Neil took it and was pulled to his feet. 

“Say no,” the Captain nearly pleaded, the mechanic still holding the back of his coat. 

Aaron lead Neil off to bridge and into the medical room where he sat and Aaron pulled up a hollow graphic of a wanted poster showing a man with cold blue eyes.

Aaron sat and looked at Neil for a long time before speaking. “This is Nathan Wesninski. He is a high profile assassin who is believed to be working for the Moriyama’s. While a lot of the government turns a blind eye to the slave trade, there are efforts being mae to loosen the Moriyama’s iron grip. Taking away their assassins would be a major hit since he is also once of their top capturers. He gathers and sells slaves to pleasure houses,” Aaron told Neil and Neil’s mouth went dry.

“Was that information the police told you?” Neil whispered.

“No,” Aaron said and the word hung heavy in the air. Neil felt sick.

“And what? You think we are related?” Neil asked almost laughing at his own words.

“Kevin and Riko Moriyama were close. Kevin met Nathan Wesninski at a party once and later Riko commented that Nathan Wesninski had a wife and child who had tragically died in a fire when the kid was ten, but the kid was Nathaniel,” Aaron said and paused as if waiting for Neil to have some revelation and confess that he was really the son of a murderer.

Neil just gave him a blank look. 

So Aaron continued, “We want to do a DNA test. If you are this Nathaniel then I’ll look for a memory lock. If you are related, the family definitely had the money and resources to lock away part of your memories. I know it’s a lot and it’s your choice. But it could definitely help a lot of people if you do this.”


End file.
